Roots Archives Forum

Hi All
Music to me is reggae and this thread is really age specific, as one person's oldie may be 1990. For me reggae's past is mid to late 70s. Anything after 1982 I tend not to get too excited about, unless it's a Madoo, Ranking Joe or early Linval Thompson/Half Pint, you know the type of thing. Fortunately, I came of age during the 'golden age' of reggae, with great artists such as Dennis Brown,Gregory, Barry Brown, Prince FarI, Vivian Jackson, Augustus Pablo (oh I could go on...). Great producers Niney, Joe Gibbs, Jack Ruby (..and on) etc. and for us as British born kids this was essential to our identity. I'm afraid pop music of the time didnt do much for me. So yes, it was a coming of age (I'm 47) ting and also the music really was beautiful, sensible for the most part and melodic. Listen to 'What is Man' - Delroy Wilson, and tell me if you've ever heard a better intro. To close with the obvious, most of the new tunes are old riddims, which just proves old reggae is the gold standard.

I'm stuck in the past...but I like new reggae that's stuck in the past too. I think some call it "revivalist," I guess. And I'm called many names by many just for tastes, oh well. They can't take my ears at least.

On dancehall:

chromatic wrote:apart from anything else, the misogyny and homophobia would be enough to turn me off in itself.

I cant agree with you more, although i personally do like some of the music i usually find the lyrical content poor, too much slackness in my opinion.

On the analog versus digital debate i disagree with people who automatically pre-judge digital music to be worse than analog music. Maybe you dont like the sound of digital music but this doenst make it bad music, well produced digital music can sound just as good as traditional music.

My personal musical journey went from Rock/Metal to Punk/Ska then onto Jungle music and other kinds of dance(Psy Trance, Dubstep, Drum and Bass). I'd always been into reggae but never actually realised it until about 5 years ago i reckon, when i look back at the music i used to like and the music i love now i can often see the reggae influence.

i agree, musical conditioning has made our brains tune in to what we consider satisfying music. Great memories of the past especially the days when we were not working and could not care less about responsibility live on and are trapped in that memory bank. The music we associated with those times will also be great till the day we depart this earth.

As for me, i'm trapped in the '86-96 era. After that, I only appreciate a few...originality went out the door after that time.

Peace.
Diz.

I came to reggae via John Peel, Punk Rock and the St Paul’s Carnival in Bristol. Money was tight so most of my music consisted of recordings of John Peel’s shows. Over the years I have bought almost everything I used to listen to from that period so I’m a bad case of being stuck in the past!

Although I was trained as an Electronic Engineer I’ve never liked electronic musical instruments mixed with reggae (one appalling early example is Jacob Millers E-E Saw Dub). I like 50/60s jazz and reggae for the musicianship and the honesty of the music. Electronic instruments lack feeling. It’s the same reason I have never got on with CDs. I listen to my music via a quality turntable, valve amplifiers and large speakers.


(PS To get the best out of your reggae LPs checkout the Opera Consonance 845 amplifiers)